Campos Coffee 2 @ Fortitude Valley

Campos Coffee May Menu 2012

Each month Campos Coffee changes their menu this was the first time we visited Campos to try their monthly menu specials!

Because we had quite a large group, they offered us a private dining room! This room was called The Roasting Room and as the name suggests, it was decorated with a bags of coffee beans, a roasting machine and posters of different aromas of coffee. The private room also had a service bell to make sure you weren’t left out in an isolated environment.

Coffee at Campos was fantastic as usual!

Today, we ordered exclusively from their May 2012 Menu:

Croissant French Toast with caramel apples, vanilla mascarpone, sweet nut dukkah

This was probably the best French toast-related dish I’ve ever had! Usually, other French toasts I’ve had are either too oily or too soggy bcause of the sauce. However, today, it was perfecto! The caramel apples weren’t too sweet and you could taste the freshness of the apples.

Smoke Salmon Fish Cakes with house made tartar sauce, house salad

This dish was presented the best out of everything simply because it was served on a wooden chopping board. They were very generous with the amount of salmon in the fish cakes but I thought it didn’t taste as nice as it looked; Probably because I don’t think it was the best way to cook the salmon.

Three Grain Risotto with wild mushroom, asparagus, green beans, and Persian feta.

This was one of my favourite! Not only did they use the three types of grains for the risotto rice, they also used three different types of mushrooms! Being a mushroom lover, this was a bonus! The risotto was cooked just right – right amount of creaminess and right amount of flavor! Definitely should be a permanent item on their menu!

Fettucine Pasta with mixed mushrooms, roasted French shallots, herbs, croutons, chilli lemon ricotta

A-m-a-z-i-n-g! The fettucine pasta was full of flavor! With so many types of seasonings and herbs, the taste blended really well with each other! Not sure if i could eat a whole plate of that for breakfast though…

Pumpkin Pancakes with candied pecans, vanilla ricotta and maple syrup

This was the other one of my favourite! The pumpkin pancakes had the perfect balance between the fluffiness of pancakes and the smooth and aromatic taste of pumpkin! The pumpkin taste was subtle and did not overpower the pecans, maple syrup not the ricotta. In fact, those all had to be eaten in one bite to get the best combination of taste! This needs to be a permanent item on the menu as well!

Overall, the May Menu did not disappoint me at all. Campos is well known for their expertise in coffee and their food is just as scrumptious too! 

Signature Dish @ Varsity Lakes

Signature Dish is a small but a nicely decorated café in Varsity Lakes, near Bond University. The atmosphere is relaxed but very stylish at the same time. The café features an open kitchen and the team here is very friendly.

The menu at Signature Dish changes on a daily/weekly basis depending on the local produce and what’s in season. Their creative dishes are really worth a try! They also have a cake cabinet at the front with daily baked goods like raspberry cheesecakes, muffins, banana bread and more.

For Bond University students, Signature Dish is a bonus because they have special deals for those students.

We ordered their Big Breakfast, the Breakfast Burrito, and the Chorizos.

The Big Breakfast came with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes and bacon – always a classic!

The Breakfast Burrito came with salad leaves, fried egg, tomato salsa and smoked salmon (instead of bacon) wrapped together with sides of sour cream and avocado. This was my favourite!

 

The Chorizo brekkie also had smoked salmon, poached eggs, spinach, sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes and sourdough – extremely filling!

Overall, Signature Dish is a very special café that you should try at least once! Everything there isn’t overly amazing or anything but service, atmosphere, price and food were all good so what else can you complain about?  

Poppy’s Basket Bakery Deli @ Southbank

Poppy’s Basket Bakery Deli is located along the main strips of shops in Southbank, opposite Southbank Cinemas. Its menu range is quite small and a lot of menu choices are daily specials like sandwiches, filos, salads, bread rolls, etc.

I came here with my friend on a Saturday morning and the Poppy’s was filled with cyclers drinking their cups of coffee. The atmosphere at Poppy’s is very laid back and relaxed.

I ordered their chickpea veggie pattie with salad and rye toast, topped off with their homemade sour cream sauce.

The chickpea pattie was nicely made and went well with the sauce. It would’ve been better if the rye toast wasn’t cold. The salad and the rye toast was just average.

My friend ordered a bacon, cheese and egg ciabatta.

 

Overall, Poppy’s is suitable for a quick and cheap brunch or afternoon tea. However, for those who want more than just a simple, quick and average brekkie, I would suggest you to go somewhere else.

Grill’d @ Wintergarden, Queen St, Brisbane CBD

The newly opened Grill’d in Wintergarden is an all rounder with funky atmosphere, friendly staff and amazing healthy burgers! What more can you ask of?

Initially, we chose to eat at Hanaichi Sushi and Dining Bar right opposite it, but it was a huge disappoint – poor service, pricey and the food was not at all fresh. We left after eating only 2 dishes of sushi from their sushi train.

Choosing Grill’d made our day! The atmosphere is relaxed and vibrant, with different seating areas having a different feel to it. The tables are also spacious, so you don’t feel all cramped up while trying to relax and have a nice meal.

We ordered a Mustard n Pickled burger (with beef pattie), Bird n Brie burger (with chicken breast) and a Nibble of the Moroccan Lamb Meatballs.

All three were very nice – fresh soft bread and they weren’t stingy with their ingredients!

 

I think Grill’d is an excellent place for lunch no matter which occasion – birthday, meet up with a friend, by yourself, etc. You’ll certainly not be bored by the design of the interior either! It’s a must for burger lovers!

Kotobuki @ East Brisbane

Kotobuki is a small Japanese restaurant that is suitable for takeaway because of their small eat-in area. By the time we sat down and ordered, all the non-reserved seats had already been all taken, with a huge line of customers still waiting to order for takeaway or waiting for a seat to eat in. Popularity speaks for itself.

The Japanese restaurant is cheap with mainly single orders of sushi, nigiri and temaki. They also have various rice and noodle dishes.

We tried their fusion sushi dishes and they were delicious! Even when compared to other fusion sushi stores like Oishii Sushi in Sunnybank, I think it’s just as delicious and it’s cheaper as well!

All the fusion sushi we ordered were really nice, but what stood out the most for me was the Kotobuki Roll, which was sushi with crumbed chicken, cream cheese and avocado and then lightly fried into a sushi tempura!

 

Other dishes we ordered:

Dragon Roll – avocado, cream cheese, cucumber, grilled eel

 

Lion King – Crab stick, cucumber, avocado, seared salmon and cheese

 

Spider Roll – Soft-shell crab, lobster salad, cucumber, tobiko and spicy mayo

 

Ruby Roll – avocado, cream cheese, fresh tuna and Japanese chilli seasoning

 

Caterpillar Roll – tuna, cucumber, avocado, tobiko

 

Hosokawa @ Hamilton

For people who are obsessed with sashimi, like me: you will LOVE this place!

Hosokawa is a small restaurant on Racecourse Rd in Hamilton. They use a lot of traditional Japanese kitchenware and has a mini sushi bar which are always bonuses for Japanese restaurants! It is probably my favourite Japanese restaurant in Brisbane in terms of the quality of the sashimi and price. No it is not exactly the cheapest sashimi out there, but where you consider the quality of the sashimi, I think it is probably worth the most at Hosokawa!

Their Chirashi Sushi Set comes with the best of the best sashimi – chef’s selection of a wide range of sashimi beautifully set out on Japanese bowls with sushi rice on the bottom.

Even though sashimi is just raw fish, there is so much skill involved to master the best tasting sashimi. The sashimi here is cut to perfection - each stroke cut along the right sides of the fish with the right thickness and size. This is why when you put it into your mouth, you can taste the difference!

They are generous with what they give – I think there were at least 2 and a half bowls of rice under all the sashimi. I couldn’t finish the rice and felt really bad.

What’s also special about Hosokawa is that it’s the only Japanese restaurant that I know of in Brisbane that serves freshly ground wasabi! It does taste different and it's so much better!

For people who love obento, Hosokawa’s Shokado Lunch Box is perfect for you! The Shokado lunch box must be pre-ordered at least the day before and there’s only a limited number of 8 per day! For $25.00 you get sashimi, tempura, chef’s selection of a grilled item, simmered item, three appetisers, pickles, rice and miso soup. Yes, it is pricey for lunch, but it will fill you up so much that you will not need dinner because you will be so full and content with the lunchbox!

Today's fish: grilled fish

Today's simmered items: lotus root, taro, fish cake, mushroom, carrot, bamboo shoot, radish, green beans.

Today's tempura: prawn, eggplant, sweet potato, pumpkin.

Today's three appetisers: tamagoyaki, grilled scallop with bacon, marinated tuna.

Today's sashimi: salmon, kingish, tuna, shellfish

Something like this is similar to Sono’s lunchboxes but Sono’s lunchboxes can be up to twice the price of Hosokawa’s and may not even be half as good!

This place is an absolute gem of Hamilton and I will recommend it to anyone!

The only cons of this place are: the restaurant can be really crowded when it’s busy and lacks service because it is usually understaffed.

I also find that for most Japanese restaurants, they do amazing lunch specials so its so much cheaper than dinner. Even when its cheaper, the quality is still the same which is another bonus!